Jet Boating on the Gold Coast

The ultimate adrenaline activity

Be prepared to expect anything on the Paradise Jet Boating experience, but just don’t expect to come back dry.

Jet boating is kind of like a roller coaster ride, but you’re in a boat, in the sea. In the 55-minute experience I enjoyed 360˚ turns, high speed drifting, ‘nose offs’, wake surfing and twists and turns – which all ended in me being dripping wet by the end. The fact that I went straight here from off the plane, backpack still in tow, made the free shower all the more refreshing.

On the Gold Coast you can enjoy all this in the waterways around Broadwater. You’ll go from the deep sea to less than 10cm of water, stirring up the tides as you go.

The route

Paradise Jet Boating offer two route options; I took the Broadwater Adventure tour. This is a 35km route which took me straight out of the Broadwater area and into the waterways. I entered the Moreton Bay Marine Park and was told that they often see all kinds of wildlife here, including dolphins. No such luck for me today though. This route also goes on a tour of the multi-million dollar houses on the Sovereign Islands – somewhere no other boat company is allowed to go.

My jet boating experience

Thanks to my crazy sat nav I was a little late to arrive, so to keep the rest of the boat happy I was ushered into my lifejacket and asked to swiftly remove all loose items, including cameras. I was gutted at first not to get any snaps, but the way I was thrown about that boat there’s no way it would’ve survived. In any case, they have a camera on the boat recording our every move. After a quick safety briefing my friends and I jumped straight into the boat along with the 10 other people in our group. We were given the front row and from the look on our driver Luke’s face as he sat us down and told us it was the driest seat I knew instantly that any hopes of staying dry were long gone.

The journey started slow, navigating our way out of the marina, which didn’t take long. We then practiced a few slow twists and turns to make sure everyone had the hang of, well, hanging on. Next up came a practice 360˚ turn and from then on I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. The next 30 or so minutes out to the Sovereign Islands went past by in a blur of splashing water and screaming backpackers. We spun 360s, we rode wakes from the other boats, we twisted and we turned all at a brilliantly fun high speed. As if that wasn’t enough to get us splashed Luke then ducked the nose down before accelerating and making a spray of water wash over the front of the boat. We were officially soaked.

Sovereign Islands

Once we hit the Sovereign Islands, Luke slowed the boat down to tell us about these super expensive homes. We soon found out nearly every building is a holiday home and barely any houses had residents at home which seemed insane when the houses are worth $10million plus. He told us more about the prices and a few funny tales of the people that live there, before moving on to teach us about the wildlife and the Broadwater area in general.

On the way back we took a different route to see another view of the area, Surfers Paradise. The view was amazing – seeing the looming skyscrapers and remembering that we would be climbing the tallest one of those, the SkyPoint, later that day!

As if we weren’t wet enough Luke did several more of the ‘nose offs’ which ensured the whole boat were dripping wet. We rode the wake of more boats and did even more 360˚ turns – I couldn’t decide what I liked most: taking off of the top of the wake only to come crashing down on the water with a thud or getting the warning for a 360˚, watching Luke turn the steering wheel (I was sat next to the driver) a little one way only for him to then swing it the other way and surprise us all.

Before we boarded the boat I was expecting some epic twists and turns and high speed but I wasn’t expecting to come back so wet and so happy!

I loved having the front row; it certainly felt like we got the full effect of every move from our position.

Paradise Jet Boating is an epic activity: it takes you around the waterways I didn’t even know existed, gives you fantastic views of Surfers and beat every expectation of mine in terms of thrill and adventure.

Get Yourself to the Gold Coast

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